Murchison Falls was named after the chairman of the British Royal Geographical Society, just as many places in East Africa are named after former conquerors and colonial rulers. In 1952, the rulers designated the area as Uganda’s first national park. Today it covers more than 3800 square kilometres.
The fact that it is one of the country’s most important tourist attractions is not only due to its mighty waterfalls, but also to its biodiversity. More than 2700 African elephants, lions, leopards, monkeys, giraffes, hippos and antelopes live here - 76 different mammal species in total. This evolving landscape of the Nile, with its savannas, trees and wetlands, is also home to 451 bird species. Many of them are considered endangered.
In the midst of buffalo herds, flocks of birds and gymnastic monkeys, roads are now being widened. Huge construction machines plough the landscape.
Read the interactive story in Der Tagesspiegel